Constable based this vivid and expressive sepia sketch on the central motif in his painting Dedham Lock and Mill 1820 (Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire). But he did not attempt to create the detailed naturalism of that earlier work. Instead, using broad brushstrokes,he concentrated on the massing of light and shade in an attempt to describe the dramatic ‘chiaroscuro of nature’.

In his free and expressive approach in making this drawing and that of Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk c.1829–35 , and in his use of sepia wash in both works, Constable’s interest in the work of other artists such as Claude Lorrain, and in the blottesque technique of Alexander Cozens, is evident.